Totally agree, super annoying. I will highlight and re-highlight a paragraph over and over as I read through it. I'm not sure why I do it, maybe it's my impulse to go faster that I can satisfy by moving my cursor rather than reading more rapidly.
Thanks for pointing that out. We switched over to Middleman from Wordpress and we're slowly building it out custom as we go. We get in a little work here and there in our spare time, but I think you've pointed out that we've got a ways to go before it works well all around.
Hey guys, I just want to clear up some confusion that we didn't see coming - The infographic was meant to represent the developers using GroupTalent back in July. I think folks got a little confused when we started drawing comparisons to the industry as a whole.
Sorry about that! We've removed the misleading parts to avoid any further confusion. Thanks!
Sorry for the off-topic. I was rejected by your review process more than 14 days ago. I've then sent you an email asking on clarification and my reasons why I think I should be approved. But I haven't got anything back from you guys. Do you have any guidelines I could read on what you expect from freelancers?
I'm just confused as I have plenty of experience under my belt and I could tackle almost any problem you throw at me.
Agreed. Thanks again for sharing the story, I think it's super helpful to other folks to see where things break so they can either avoid common pitfalls, or avoid the topic altogether!
Maybe, but when you're being offered such a large chunk of equity I think folks tend to think of it more like a partnership. I mean 60% and 40% are relatively equal and generally on par with the kind of split many serial entrepreneurs think there ought to exist, whether you agree with that or not.
Well finding technically skilled people who are available and willing to work on your project isn't exactly easy. He may have embraced that a little sooner than other entrepreneurs and decided to go for something juicy enough that he could make headway.
Well, that's kind of the point, isn't it? As a non-technical business founder myself, I just can't understand what that guy possibly would have been thinking. I'd never give up that much of my company unless the other party was coming on board as full partner, meaning they're also going to be sharing all the financial and legal risks (and yes, that means contributing money as well as time). If you value your company at all, 40% is a massive sum to pay someone unless they're sharing all the risks with you, not just spending some of their time. Just giving yourself a $1 million dollar valuation, that means paying someone $400,000 to handle just one element of your business...and you could probably get it done a lot cheaper if you just took the time to go through your options.
As for finding technically skilled people who are available and want to work, it's not easy, but nothing in business is easy. It's no harder than any other part of a business, it just requires persistence and knowing where to look (I should know, I've hired a bunch of them in the last 6 months). Taking a shortcut and throwing a bunch of equity at the problem just shows the kind of lack of foresight that should make you question whether you really want to work with that kind of person.
